(2) 4-6 Thirteen-year-old narrator Yen, her siblings, and her mother live a difficult life in rural Vietnam just after the fall of Saigon. Following a devastating flood in their village, they escape Vietnam and experience a range of obstacles, from corrupt police to prejudice; aboard a refugee boat to Malaysia, they witness sickness, death, and piracy. The descriptive narrative is straightforward with a strong sense of immediacy. An afterword reveals the story's autobiographical roots. Glos.

Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2019

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Josée Bisaillon. Poetic text alternates between a worried daughter's remarks to her mother ("I see your hands, / Coarsened and scratched... I will stay with you") and hard-at-work Mama's clear-eyed responses ("Ten cents a pound is what I'll earn / To buy these books and set you free"). Set at a coffee field, the collage-like art finds the rumpled beauty in Mama's sacrifice.

Reviewer: Nell Beram